


Watch My Back

by Enigmatique



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Genre: Dark Side Revan - Freeform, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2014-09-22
Packaged: 2018-02-18 09:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2343350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enigmatique/pseuds/Enigmatique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Canderous watched Revan as she sat a rock and started taking apart her blaster rifle. She was covered in blood and bandages, her robes were torn, her hair was singed, but her face showed no hint of the carnage she wrought on this very beach. It was as if she had not just massacred her allies, whose smoking corpses still lay a few meters from where she sat. As if she had not been abandoned by her lover, who could only see the dark lady she once was and not the conflicted person with the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watch My Back

Canderous watched Revan as she sat a rock and started taking apart her blaster rifle. She was covered in blood and bandages, her robes were torn, her hair was singed, but her face showed no hint of the carnage she wrought on this very beach. It was as if she had not just massacred her allies, whose smoking corpses still lay a few meters from where she sat. As if she had not been abandoned by her lover, who could only see the dark lady she once was and not the conflicted person with the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders.

Canderous started stripping the corpses of weapons and armor, knowing Revan would not want them to go to waste. There was no time for sentimentality on a battlefield, and he appreciated having a Commander who knew that.

“Canderous?” Revan’s voice did not sound as frightening as it did when she confronted the others. The coldness was gone, and she sounded just like she did before she got her memories back, before she remembered the threat to the galaxy that only she could stop.

“Revan.” Canderous walked over to Revan, understanding that she needed somebody to talk to.

“Canderous, you promised me your loyalty. I do not doubt your loyalty, or that you will be fighting by my side as long as I have breath in my body.” She stood and looked up at him, eyes shining with unshed tears. “I have to know, Canderous, do you fight with me because of the battles I can give you? Do you not care that I can crush you where you stand as easily as I did the others? Does it not matter to you who I am, or who I was?”

“It matters.” Canderous took a step closer to her. If it were any other female he would have reached out to her. Not Revan. “It matters because you are the only person in the galaxy I would be honored to fight with. It matters because I have seen your brilliance on the battlefield. It matters because I know that you are still the same person who got us off Taris and traveled the galaxy in search of the star maps. What does not matter is whether you are light or dark. That does not matter, because I will fight for you, because of who you are.”

 

Revan closed her eyes upon hearing Canderous’ words. The words were a vow of loyalty she did not deserve, and the emotion she sensed behind them were more intense than she expected. Tears started to fall from her cheeks, the stress and tension of the day finally catching up to her. She felt a pair of strong arms catch her while she cried on Canderous’ bloodstained armor.

“I had to do it, Canderous. I have to stop Malak from ruining everything. I couldn’t save the galaxy as a Jedi, I couldn’t save it as a Sith. I’m going to save it as me, this time. The battle to come will not be decided by brilliant strategies or superior numbers. The side that will win is the side that I can see holding up against the threat to the galaxy. Am I horrible to so callously decide the galaxy’s fate on my own?”

Canderous let Revan cry for a few minutes before he released her. Revan would not want to succumb to weakness in front of him and he respected it. Heck, he could not let her see him succumb to weakness as well. Mandalorians don’t cry. He wondered how Carth could not see that Revan was not just a former Sith, she was also a former Jedi, and everything in between. Other Mandalorians might have a problem fighting with Revan since it was she who cost them the war. He didn’t, because it was Revan who gave them the war they sought.

“Canderous.” Revan was back in her commanding officer mode. “When we get to the Star Forge I will have to fight Malak alone. I need you to keep the engines hot and the ship ready to fly out in a hurry.”

“T3 can do that. You are not going to let me off that easy. I made a promise, remember? Besides, you might need help getting the Princess under control once she realizes you are not serious about taking the mantle of the Dark Lord.” Canderous was back to his gruff manner, but even he sensed something had changed between them.

“I can’t be Darth Revan again, the galaxy needs to be strengthened not destroyed. If we throw our support to the Republic, I will not have control of the fleet, but the war will be over. Bastila will have to make her choice. If she stands in my way I might have to kill her as well.” Revan stuffed some her weapons into her pack and left the discarded ones in the sand, just like she kept her faithful allies while the others rotted in the sand.

“You’ve saved the lives of a bunch of other people as we traveled. Today you killed those whom you once fought for, and now you talk callously about killing someone you have a bond with?” Canderous raised an eyebrow in irony. He did not disapprove of her decision, but he wanted to know if she knew what she was doing. Commanding an army and a fleet before turning thirty might have gone to her head.

“I only kill when it is necessary. If I can avoid it I would rather not. I wouldn’t kill anyone who might be of use to me or who does not interfere with my plans. I have no use for a dark apprentice, but I cannot let her stop me. And I cannot let her use her battle meditation against the side I want to win. Either she sees things my way, or she dies. Are you getting soft, Mandalorian?” With her own eyebrow raised, she said that last word like a compliment, instead of the biting insult when the others say it.

“I just wanted to make sure you were still the master tactician you were.” Besides, if she insisted on going alone she couldn’t stop him if he followed her. Not unless she planned on flying the Hawk without a pilot. 

“I got us this far without my memories.” Revan started removing the torn bits of her robe and the broken pieces of her armor, leaving only her flight suit. She had used the force to heal her injuries sustained from fighting the sith in the temple and from killing her former comrades, and Canderous could see that beneath the shapeless robes is a beautiful body. A body of a warrior who has known wars, and tasted victory and defeat.

“You won’t go anywhere else if you fight in the Star Forge alone.” Canderous slung his repeating rifle over his shoulders and pointedly crossed his arms over his chest.

“Are you disobeying a direct order?” Revan’s voice was as cold as ice but her grey eyes did not harden.

“I’m making sure my commanding officer gets out alive.” Canderous wasn’t prone to staring contests but he stared down his nose at Revan.

“What about you? Who’s going to make sure you get out alive?” If not for the slight catch in her voice Canderous would have laughed.

“I’ve been fighting wars while you were still learning to float your first rock. I don’t need a nursemaid, but you need someone to watch your back while your bloodthirsty droid clears your path.”

“Just my back, Mandalorian?” Revan was now looking back at him with a stare that would have sent lesser men running for the hills. It was a challenge and a warning all in one, and Canderous was never one to back down from a challenge. Or heed a warning.

“I’m already disobeying direct orders by watching your back, but I swore to fight by your side. It would be a bit hard to do both, but I’ll manage. The galaxy will survive without me.” Canderous took a step closer to Revan, daring her to move backwards.

“The galaxy will, but I won’t.” Revan took another step forward, surprising Canderous with the intensity in her grey eyes. “I’m going to take a swim while the droids finish fixing the ship. If you want to start watching my back maybe you’d better get that armor off before you drown.”

Picking up her lightsaber, Revan walked toward the beach without looking back.


End file.
